Before I go into the build, I do want to let people know that I am not an expect. I have about 50 hours experience with the game, which really isn't enough to master half the content it has. Because of this, my build most likely isn't optimal, there are probably better ones, but this is a build that can survive the game with a single playthrough, without much chance of death. Anyway, enjoy the build everyone.
Class: Marauder > Chieftain
Style: Two-Handed, Elemental Damage
Weapon: Two-Handed Swords (Axes are a good option until late game)
Life and Mana: High Mana - Mostly reserved for buffs, Low Regen. Medium Life, High Regen.
Key Abilities: Ice Crash, Summon Stone Golem, Heavy Strike, Herald of Ash, Spectral Throw and Anger
Ability Breakdown:
Ice Crash:
This was one of the most useful skills during the late game, it provides a powerful AoE effect around the user, dealing Ice Damage. Combined with the Herald of Ash and Anger buffs, this becomes a strong Ice and Fire attack
Support Gems: Increased Fire Damage, Melee Physical Damage
Summon Stone Golem:
The Stone Golem wasn't particularly powerful minion but it did provide a simply massive buff. It increase Life Regen by a pretty massive amount (30+) that can really change how much I need to rely on Flasks. But it did also provide a decent enough distraction for boss level enemies, sending out Golems while I regenerate Life.
Heavy Strike:
Heavy Strike was quite a simple choice. It provides an excellent amount of damage throughout the game but even better is great for knocking back enemies consistently.
Support Gems: Faster Attacks and Increased Fire Damage.
Herald of Ash:
Here we get to the second of our most useful Abilities. Herald of Ash is perhaps the most powerful buff in the game, as long as you have a decent amount of Physical Damage. It adds fire damage to all attacks that scales as your physical damage rises, increasing both rapidly as you upgrade weapons. As a negative, it does mean we reserve 25% of our Mana.
Anger
Combined with Herald of Ash, we can now dish out a simply massive amount of Fire Damage. Anger increase Fire Damage by an increasing but set amount, so it differs from Herald of Ash, but it is still rather powerful when combined with our other Support Gems and Abilities.
Spectral Throw:
Honestly this ability was my most used ability. It wasn't the strongest, in fact it did less than a quarter of Ice Crash's damage during the later game but it was an insanely useful ranged attack. Providing an easy way to kill weakened enemies and dealing decent damage to really weak groups of enemies.
Gameplay:
As you can see we have a massive focus on Fire Damage, with Anger and Herald of Ash boosting it, as well as the Support Gems on some of our abilities all increasing Fire Damage. But of course, none of that would be as potent if it wasn't for a simply astounding amount of damage coming through as physical. Throughout the 4th Arc I was getting close to 1000 dps with my basic attack, and a good 600 was purely physical.
There is something to consider though, this build has a major weak-point with it's really limited Mana Pool. While for a Marauder, I was actually pretty good at 300 by level 40, it was severely restricted by my use of Anger and Herald of Ash. See together they reserve 75% of our Mana, meaning I only had a good 50-70 to work with once I got both buffs. Now the benefit to this, is that our Mana generally recharges within 2-4 seconds, it's unlikely that you won't pick up a few items, so if you can get your Mana Regen to about 30/second then we're golden. But any less then that, and we're really having to rely on Mana Flasks to regain our ability to dish out pain. I nearly lost at least 2 boss battles because I simply ran out of Mana.
Now Combat is quite simple honestly. Run in, use Ice Crash until everything dies. Alright, I should mention that this only really works on large groups of low-high level enemies, in one on one fights your probably going to get more use out of Heavy Strike because of the consistent knockback effect.
The hardest fight in the game for me was probably against Dominus, I won't spoil this fight because it's an interesting one, but it was really the only time I actually died in a battle. His AoE attacks are really difficult for this character to avoid, and the low speed of The Inferno makes it really difficult to get away. I'd focus on using Heavy Strike against him in an effort to Knock him back, or get some distance and spend 10 years destroying him with Spectral Throw.
(Level 40 passive Spread - 39 from leveling, 5 from quests)
Passive Spread
Equipment:
Now the problem with Path of Exile is that the loot is fully randomized. There isn't really (In my experience) any really set loot or locations, so it's pure luck on where you find stuff. All I can really do is make some recommendations (Keep in mind that you'll always want to focus on Armor and Two-Handed Swords).
Weapon - Elemental Damage, Life on Kill, Increased Physical Damage
Armour - Life, + %Armour (Not a straight up bonus but a percentage increase), Life Regen, Mana Regen, Attack Speed, Elemental Damage (especially Gloves).
Rings: You'll always want to keep 2 of each elemental ring in your equipment so two Ruby, Sapphire and Topaz Rings of the highest quality. And I tended to use a Coral Ring that gave a health boost most of the time. Amulet wise, well I'd recommend anything with a high Dexterity bonus but really whatever you can get your hands on
Closing Notes:
Well that's about it really. It's a lot shorter than most other builds but I might come back and edit this after (if) I finish Cruel and Merciless. Oh right, I should point out that I did this in the Hardcore Standard League on Normal difficulty. It was very much designed to be for beginners by a beginner.
I'm currently working on a rather interesting, Skill-Spell using Scion that seems like fun, and then I'm planning a Hunter (Super Fast Bow) and either a Crit+Leech Duelist or a AoE-Massive DPS Witch build.
Before I go into the build, I do want to let people know that I am not an expect. I have about 50 hours experience with the game, which really isn't enough to master half the content it has. Because of this, my build most likely isn't optimal, there are probably better ones, but this is a build that can survive the game with a single playthrough, without much chance of death. Anyway, enjoy the build everyone.
Class: Marauder > Chieftain
Style: Two-Handed, Elemental Damage
Weapon: Two-Handed Swords (Axes are a good option until late game)
Life and Mana: High Mana - Mostly reserved for buffs, Low Regen. Medium Life, High Regen.
Key Abilities: Ice Crash, Summon Stone Golem, Heavy Strike, Herald of Ash, Spectral Throw and Anger
Ability Breakdown:
Ice Crash:
This was one of the most useful skills during the late game, it provides a powerful AoE effect around the user, dealing Ice Damage. Combined with the Herald of Ash and Anger buffs, this becomes a strong Ice and Fire attack
Support Gems: Increased Fire Damage, Melee Physical Damage
Summon Stone Golem:
The Stone Golem wasn't particularly powerful minion but it did provide a simply massive buff. It increase Life Regen by a pretty massive amount (30+) that can really change how much I need to rely on Flasks. But it did also provide a decent enough distraction for boss level enemies, sending out Golems while I regenerate Life.
Heavy Strike:
Heavy Strike was quite a simple choice. It provides an excellent amount of damage throughout the game but even better is great for knocking back enemies consistently.
Support Gems: Faster Attacks and Increased Fire Damage.
Herald of Ash:
Here we get to the second of our most useful Abilities. Herald of Ash is perhaps the most powerful buff in the game, as long as you have a decent amount of Physical Damage. It adds fire damage to all attacks that scales as your physical damage rises, increasing both rapidly as you upgrade weapons. As a negative, it does mean we reserve 25% of our Mana.
Anger
Combined with Herald of Ash, we can now dish out a simply massive amount of Fire Damage. Anger increase Fire Damage by an increasing but set amount, so it differs from Herald of Ash, but it is still rather powerful when combined with our other Support Gems and Abilities.
Spectral Throw:
Honestly this ability was my most used ability. It wasn't the strongest, in fact it did less than a quarter of Ice Crash's damage during the later game but it was an insanely useful ranged attack. Providing an easy way to kill weakened enemies and dealing decent damage to really weak groups of enemies.
Gameplay:
As you can see we have a massive focus on Fire Damage, with Anger and Herald of Ash boosting it, as well as the Support Gems on some of our abilities all increasing Fire Damage. But of course, none of that would be as potent if it wasn't for a simply astounding amount of damage coming through as physical. Throughout the 4th Arc I was getting close to 1000 dps with my basic attack, and a good 600 was purely physical.
There is something to consider though, this build has a major weak-point with it's really limited Mana Pool. While for a Marauder, I was actually pretty good at 300 by level 40, it was severely restricted by my use of Anger and Herald of Ash. See together they reserve 75% of our Mana, meaning I only had a good 50-70 to work with once I got both buffs. Now the benefit to this, is that our Mana generally recharges within 2-4 seconds, it's unlikely that you won't pick up a few items, so if you can get your Mana Regen to about 30/second then we're golden. But any less then that, and we're really having to rely on Mana Flasks to regain our ability to dish out pain. I nearly lost at least 2 boss battles because I simply ran out of Mana.
Now Combat is quite simple honestly. Run in, use Ice Crash until everything dies. Alright, I should mention that this only really works on large groups of low-high level enemies, in one on one fights your probably going to get more use out of Heavy Strike because of the consistent knockback effect.
The hardest fight in the game for me was probably against Dominus, I won't spoil this fight because it's an interesting one, but it was really the only time I actually died in a battle. His AoE attacks are really difficult for this character to avoid, and the low speed of The Inferno makes it really difficult to get away. I'd focus on using Heavy Strike against him in an effort to Knock him back, or get some distance and spend 10 years destroying him with Spectral Throw.
(Level 40 passive Spread - 39 from leveling, 5 from quests)
Passive Spread
Equipment:
Now the problem with Path of Exile is that the loot is fully randomized. There isn't really (In my experience) any really set loot or locations, so it's pure luck on where you find stuff. All I can really do is make some recommendations (Keep in mind that you'll always want to focus on Armor and Two-Handed Swords).
Weapon - Elemental Damage, Life on Kill, Increased Physical Damage
Armour - Life, + %Armour (Not a straight up bonus but a percentage increase), Life Regen, Mana Regen, Attack Speed, Elemental Damage (especially Gloves).
Rings: You'll always want to keep 2 of each elemental ring in your equipment so two Ruby, Sapphire and Topaz Rings of the highest quality. And I tended to use a Coral Ring that gave a health boost most of the time. Amulet wise, well I'd recommend anything with a high Dexterity bonus but really whatever you can get your hands on
Closing Notes:
Well that's about it really. It's a lot shorter than most other builds but I might come back and edit this after (if) I finish Cruel and Merciless. Oh right, I should point out that I did this in the Hardcore Standard League on Normal difficulty. It was very much designed to be for beginners by a beginner.
I'm currently working on a rather interesting, Skill-Spell using Scion that seems like fun, and then I'm planning a Hunter (Super Fast Bow) and either a Crit+Leech Duelist or a AoE-Massive DPS Witch build.
